Saws in hand, shoppers swarm Christmas tree farms

Thousands of families took their Small Business Saturday to the wide open spaces, looking for the perfect holiday tree from southwestern Connecticut growers.

In annual family rituals, they came from as far away as New Jersey, New York, Ontario and Massachusetts, scouring hillsides and valleys, saws in hand. They brought kids, grandchildren, dogs, blankets, picnic supplies and memories stretching back 30 years or more, searching for perfection.

More experienced tree cutters carried plastic tarps to haul off their bounty. The less-informed brought dangerous hatchets and chain saws that were overruled by tree farm assistants and taken back to cars, unused.

Then there was Doug Reid of Darien, an annual visitor of recent years, who needed more than his left leg up in the air to provide leverage as he tried to saw down a hefty 10-foot fir tree at Jones Family Farms here. After an hour-long stroll through the 200 hillside acres of blue spruce, balsam firm, Douglas fir, Fraser fir, white fir and white pine, it was back to the very first tree that the kids fell in love with.

By this time, Caitlin, 13, was back shivering in the Suburban, underdressed as only a teenager can be. But Beau, the young Bernese Mountain dog, a 140-pound hit with fellow dog owners on the farm, presided over a tree-cutting party attended by John, 11, Brigitte, 10, Charlotte, 8 and Elizabeth, 5.

Sawing down the hefty tree was torturous until his wife Linda’s younger sister, Denise Cleary, an NFL advertising executive from Long Island, found and fetched a sharper saw from the supplies around the farm.

Plus, Denise’s merchant mariner fiance, Chris McIntyre, was on the scene to provide added muscle and some real blood when his cheek got scratched in the fray.

Indeed the extended family tradition goes back 38 years ago, when McIntyre’s mother, Rosemary, made the trip from North Massapequa, on Long Island, to Jones Farms. “My husband’s family is from Connecticut,” Rosemary recalled when her clan encountered the Reid family, as almost planned, along the farm road. “It was very different years ago, it was very quaint, quiet. We used to tailgate. We really can’t do that anymore.”

Farmer Terry Jones was taking time out from mulching strawberries for next June to watch the seasonal parade of SUVs, pickups, even compact cars filled to overflowing with seasonal greenery, coming down from the upper hill.

He said about three quarters of visitors choose to cut their own at the sixth-generation eponymous farm: all trees $63 plus a free ornament and directions for care (“Water the tree daily.”) One third pay up to $15 a foot for pre-cut trees down by the old barn. “A lot of people really want to get out there in the woods,” said Jones, adding that the trees had a good year because of the mulch that keeps their roots moist.

There are about 400 members of the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association throughout the state, whose late-year income — and 6.35 percent sales taxes — is a boon for state farmers and the sputtering state budget.

Terry’s wife Jean estimates that December generates a high percentage of the farm’s annual revenue. Crops include strawberries and blueberries in the spring, pumpkins in the fall, Christmas trees; and the farm winery most of the year.

Scott Edwards, whose family charges about the same price for cut-your-own at their Maple Row Tree Farm on Easton’s North Park Avenue, said a lot of people bring chairs, food, drinks and enjoy the kind of tailgate festivities that certain NFL teams — hello New York Jets — may be unworthy of.

“It’s starting to become a big thing,” Edwards said in a phone interview Saturday night. “People come and stay for half a day.” Maple Row is smaller than Jones, so buyers don’t have to drag their finds to employees to tie the trees up and get them on top of cars.

“I was talking with a guy yesterday and asked when he started coming here and he said it was easy to remember, 1971, the year he got married,” Edwards said.